Monday, June 10, 2013

June Bee Blocks

Hi Everyone!!! I'm running a little behind this month...but the Bee block fabrics for June went out today! I'm hoping this will be a fun and easy block for everyone. I was in the mood for a Christmas quilt...a scrappy Christmas trip around the world quilt, to be exact! (Excuse the i-phone photo with bad lighting, above, but it's the only picture I took before dividing up my strips into piles and sealing them in envelopes to send to you)!

I'm hoping to achieve the same look that I have with my regular scrappy trip along quilt. So there is a strip of white fabric with everyone's bundle of fabrics. Please use the excellent tutorial by Bonnie Hunter here to create your block, and please make sure the white fabric goes diagonally one direction across the whole block. (It won't matter what order you sew the strips together, you'll be able to determine placement of the white fabrics when you undo the seam on each of your tubes). Everyone has enough fabric to make one block, and some of you have enough to almost make two blocks. One block is all I'm requesting, but hey, if you want to make another, I won't refuse it...this is going to be a 36 block quilt. You may need one or two strips 2 1/2" x 16" in order to make a second block. Or...if you don't have time to make a second block and might have a strip or two of 2 1/2" x 16" bright Christmas fabric to spare, I would love that...I'm trying not to have too many repeats in the quilt!The rest of the details...

What size quilt block do you want your
bee partners to make?(Give finished and unfinished measurements, just to be sure.)

The blocks will be 12 1/2" unfinished and 12" finished

Can your partners use any of their own
stash fabric to use in your quilt block? If so, are there any limitations?

Yes, as I mentioned above, I would love some extra fabrics in the mix...as long as they "fit in" with what I sent.

Is there a specific color of thread
(white/off white) you want your partners to sew with?

White or off-white would be great!

Do your partners have to use at least
a little bit of every fabric you send or can your partners decide?

I think you'll want to use some of every piece

Do you have a general theme or is it
up to your partners to decide? Are there any specific themes that you do NOT
want in your quilt block? Likes/dislikes?

My block is pretty specific...

Will you allow any embellishments on
the quilt block (i.e. embroidery, raised items such as yo-yos or fabric
origami)?

No embellishments.

Can you link us to any flickr or
Pinterest photos that you would like us to use as inspiration for your quilt
block?

See the photos in the post for inspiration.

If your partners are super motivated
and are able to make two blocks out of the fabric you send, would you accept
more than one block from your partners?

Of course...see above...

Do you want your partners to return
any leftover larger size scraps to you when they return the completed blocks or
can they keep them for their own scrap stash?

I would love to have you keep any of the left-overs...I have more of everything I sent, so if you'll use it, keep it. If you don't think you'll use it...I'll add it back to my Christmas 2 1/2" strip bin...but wouldn't it be fun if we all did scrappy trip along Christmas quilts this year?!

Your fun package arrived in the mail today. I've been working on my own scrappy trip today! I'm so surprised how much I like making the blocks. I'm never a fan of seam ripping, but it's so fast and easy. I can't wait to get started!